Katia Beauchamp co-founded the beauty subscription business Birchbox in 2010. Since then, it has grown into a $485m company, with more than a million subscribers and a physical retail store in Soho, New York.

When Hayley and I were at business school, we were surrounded by conversations about new ways of selling online, but nobody was talking about the beauty industry; it wasn’t part of the conversation. At the same time, we realised women were finding it challenging keeping abreast of all the new beauty products out there. This sparked the idea for Birchbox.

We came up with a business model that would curate potential beauty products, personalise them to the customer, and send them out using a subscription model.

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The early days were challenging, as the concept of online beauty subscriptions was so new. But we had this emotional side of the business – which most companies are crying out for – where women really wanted to tell you how they felt about the products.

It wasn’t tough attracting customers. Women understood what we were doing and they enjoyed not having to try thousands of products, and having a personalised experience. They said to us: “Where have you been all my life?” We received really good feedback.

We’ve evolved Birchbox over the years. Our US market share grew fast and in 2012 we moved into Europe. We launched Birchbox Men as we were hearing demand for it. We also launched a physical retail store [Birchbox opened its first shop in Soho, New York in 2014] after testing pop-ups. The biggest difference compared to other stores is that we don’t merchandise by brand. No one shops that way. We merchandise by category as that’s how the average woman shops for beauty. If their skin is flaky or they want a bold lip for a night out, they’re not thinking about brand. This is much more customer-focused.

The first step is ask for help, and expect to get it, you deserve that

My proudest moments are not the big wins, but the smaller things – like sitting in a meeting and seeing how smart and thoughtful my team is. We’ve evolved into something bigger than just me.

The hardest thing for me is that I think about the team a lot and how they cope when there’s rumours about the company. [Media outlets recently reported that subscription-box companies are seeing slow growth]. I can deal with it, so I tell them to bring it to me. But when our coworkers are scared or worried or they feel like they have to defend what they’re doing, and when they have to read about it – I don’t ever want them to go through that. I want to protect them.

I also have twins. The first year of being a mom was tough. But I try to be nice to myself. Every woman needs to know that the first step is to ask for help and expect to get it, you deserve that. I’m incredibly grateful that I have the support of my husband. I don’t know where Birchbox would be without my husband. He believes in me.

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The lack of women in tech is due to many factors. Honestly, I think it starts early [during childhood]. When a woman is growing up, it’s important the people around her tell her what could be possible, and that she has role models to look up to. A critical part is believing it’s possible. I also think if you decide to be an entrepreneur, as a woman it’s more difficult to raise capital. Opportunities [for women in tech] would improve if there was more balance in the investor community. That’s where most change needs to happen.

My biggest advice for budding entrepreneurs is to start working towards launch, put it out to the market and iterate it. A lot of us keep tweaking everything and working on it, but I think it’s best to get the product out as soon as you can. You’re never going to be completely happy with it, but you can always change it. The faster it’s out there, the faster you’re going to have real feedback – and that’s the most critical thing.